Amazing Race 8 Travelblog

Race to the finish... Leg 12

2005-12-13T21:46:00.000-08:00

[In slightly delayed form, I'm starting today's race at 9:47pm, but fortunately I'll be able to fast forward through commercials... the question is how close to 11:00 will I finish watching the race?]

First an extended recap of the first 10 legs of the race! Of course, avid readers of this blog (including myself) will already remember all of this. :)

Eastern Montana, in the middle of nowhere. Flying to Montreal, Canada... they have tickets, but the *can* try to find a faster flight. Interesting concept that we haven't seen before. At least the final 3 teams are going to fly somewhere again.

The Bransen, Linz, and Weavers are all off to Billings Logan Int'l Airport. Bransen family has made a faster connection in Minneapolis that will arrive 10 minutes earlier than the scheduled one. All three teams are on the same flight to Minneapolis though. So far so good. Bransen... covertly gets their new boarding passes. Linz and Weavers are fighting their way to the ticket counter in Toronto, but I'm not sure why. I must have missed something... or that's just bad editing. :) Oh... so Weavers and Linz are on a 3pm flight that managed to make it an hour earlier than scheduled. Now the Bransen have gone from first to last.

The Weavers are in a taxi with a driver who claims "they call me Ted". He has that look of "just get these freaks out of my cab". And into the underground city, where the Weavers have no problem following the instructions to find the clue box... the Linz family has a bit of trouble, but got it figured out.

DETOUR: Slide it or roll it! Slide it: McGill Arena and go curling. Each team member needs to get a rock into the house.

Roll it... roll some logs and stuff... so lame that I won't even mention it... they should all do the curling. :)

Both the Weavers and Linz family have decided to go curling, but the hard part is finding the arena. And the Weavers are there... here it comes... and it's short of the house... but it's past the hog line so they're forced to leave it there... this is going to be come a problem! Muahahahah! The Weavers have their first rock in the house and the Linz haven't even arrived. The Bransen family decided to do the log rolling.

The Weavers are done and in the lead, heading to the American Pavillion from Expo '67.

"I love this game! I'm moving to Canada!" If that isn't a glowing endorsement of curling, I don't know what is! The Linz family I think are future curlers. :)

Find "La Porte J"... which is French for "Door J"... but will they figure that out? Oh, I don't even want to know what they're going to come up with for that.

Roadblock! Time for some acrobatics... must do some catch on the flying trapeeze. Weaver boy did it like a professional... no worries at all. Linz followed and he had a little more trouble, so much so that the Bransen family managed to catch them at the roadblock. Bad news for the Linz, but good news for the Bransens.

Now to the Olympic stadium in Montreal and find the arena on a golf cart. What's up with golf carts, honestly?

The Weavers have to find a place in the stadium where they can drive their golfcart inside, but are having immense trouble doing so. Losing a lot of ground here now... I suspect things are going to even out a bit now. And all three teams are on their golf carts now trying to find it. They're at the 50 yard line and now have to find a charter flight departure time somewhere in the stadium seats. This is starting to sound remarkably familiar to my fake episode of the race... maybe I'm psychic.

Wow, this is a challenge and a half. One was found... 5:50am departure to a "Mystery Destination" for the Linz family. 5:45am departure for the Bransen family. And the Weavers are falling asleep on the search. One rule of course is that all members of your team must search together. Weavers finally find it... 5:55am. But where is everyone going?! Where is the mystery final destination?

Toronto, Canada! Right where I predicted from the previews of the last episode. Take the elevator to the top of the CN Tower, tallest structure in the world. Use binoculars to find the location of your next clue. This is a complete rip off of AR7 (or was it AR6?) where they were at the top of the ferris wheel (in London?) and had to find the marked clues.

Adam the elevator operator at the CN Tower: "How long have you been at your job, Adam?" "Three years." "Do you enjoy it?" "It has it ups and downs." ba-dum-bum.

The Bransen and Linz both are in the elevator down together... Weavers take a bit longer, but are close on their heels. Now comes the hard part, trying to figure out from the ground where it was that you were looking at from above.

DETOUR: Ship, or shoe. Ship... sail across Toronto harbor to the boat and pick up a nautical flag. Shoe... find the Bata shoe museum... choose a pair of shoes, then find one of 100 women who the shoe actually fits and matches. Crazy challenge unless you're very lucky.

Linz and Weaver both are taking the Ship detour. Bransen are going for the Shoe detour. Linz family have no trouble at all... and they're off 81 miles to Queenston on the Canadian side of the Niagra gorge. Take a boat out and find their next clue on a buoy.

We're getting down to the wire... "That mom's a wacko... she really is." One guess who that's referring to. ;-)

Wow, it's a little wet plowing a big jetboat through rapids in the Niagra. Looks like fun though. Take the boat down to Lewiston, NY, the final destination in the Amazing Race 8. GO GO GO!

Well, barring any unusual surprises, the Weavers are out of the race to the finish... it's going to come down to the Linz and the Bransens in a race to the finish. But a

Roadblock... complete a jigsaw puzzle map of central and north america, then make it to the finish line. The first to finish is going to win the race... what a challenge! Mental over physical to win the race... the excitement builds!

Linz seems to be finished... they're off... the finish line is there... run run run run....

"25 days, 50 cities, and more than 600 consecutive hours together as a family... Linz family you are the official winners of the Amazing Race! Congratulations, you have won $1 Million Dollars!"

"Bransen Family... congratulations, you're the second team in the Amazing Race."

"Weaver Family... you're team number three."

Was I right, from the beginning when knew nothing about the teams, I picked the Linz family as the one team I thought would win... though I admit it's nothing more than a lucky guess... but I'll take it anyway. What do I win? Absolutely nothing, of course... but hey, the satisfaction of knowing I guessed right is good enough. And what other satisfaction? The satisfaction that I don't have to write this silly useless blog that nobody reads every week for a while isn't bad either. I think next season I may need to add some twists to make it more interesting. But that's next time, in February on AR9. But until February... that's all folks.

To Big Sky Country... Leg 10 1/2

2005-12-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

... when we previously left the race, half the teams had realized that they weren't done...

"Godlewski Family, you're the last team to arrive. However this leg is not over, and you're still in the race."

The race continues to... Dubois, Wyoming.

Detour... Pioneer spirit or native tradition. Build a wagon and drive it a quarter mile with horses... or build a tepee. The harder one seems like the wagon... which is what I'd suggest. As it turns out, the wagon is a piece of cake... but the tepee proves quite the challenge.

Find Wild Bill, dress in authentic wild west garb, and take your picture with him. Serves little purpose other than entertainment value, and to space out the teams to a nice even spacing.

Red Lodge Montana... on the golf course...
Roadblock... find 4 golf balls scattered throughout 9 holes of the course. Don't worry, you get the Cadillac of golf carts... wait, no, quite literally it's a **CORPORATE SPONSOR ALERT** Buick golf cart. The Linz family is the first to tackle the roadblock, but get beat out by the Branson family when the Linz has to take a second lap because they didn't look in the hole.

And now they're off to the pit stop... where the last team to arrive "may" (read that as "definitely will") be eliminated. It's a foot race between the Branson and Linz family and the Branson family is team number one! "Buick is a great vehicle!" and as winners of this leg of the race you win... a larger version of the ** CORPORATE SPONSOR ALERT ** Buick whatchacallit sedan. Woo.

Welcome to Montana. "Linz Family, you're team number two!"

Weaver family comes in as team number 3.

Godlewski Family... is the last team to arrive and has been eliminated.

And going into the final leg, we'll see Branson, Linz, and Weaver racing for the finish line and the $1Million dollar grand prize. Note that at the beginning of the race, I predicted the Linz family to win it all... we'll see if my prophesy will come true.

But first the previews of the final episode and final leg of the race... they appear to be heading to Canada... and the highlight (at least for me) is that they're going CURLING! YES! This is the most excellent thing I've seen on the race yet! Very exciting! Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion to the Amazing Race 8!

Taming the Wild West - Leg 10

2005-11-29T22:01:00.000-08:00

Recap from last week.

The Linz family is off at 12:46am. Others closely behind. And they're off to Park City High School, trailers in tow, to inflate hot air balloons for an adventure.

OK, the sob story from the Weaver family is getting really old really fast. And then distastefully taunting the teams that yielded them... doesn't do much to support the claims that they're all the sweet and innocent teams that don't deserve what they get. If you ask me, they're the ones full of... ehem...

HOT AIR balloons rise on the Utah horizon. Now all 4 teams are flying high, and down they go with their next clue. The weavers tumbling down the side of the hill, literally.

Off to the Heber Valley historic railroad.

DETOUR: Spike it or steam it. Spike it uses tools and spikes to build a railway track. Steam it fills buckets with coal and carries them up to fill a rail car. Hmmm... I think spike it actually seems easier, until you realize how you have to pound spikes with sledge hammers. Not so easy. The weavers choose to steam it, while the rest of them spike it. The Linz family leaves with a slim lead, and get a nice rest during a 150-mile drive to the Bonneville Salt Flats. But in shocking news, team Florida pulled ahead of the Godlewski's who now are comfortably in last place.

Find "Bear Lake rendever"... "rendezvous"... "beach". 400 miles back from where they came from. What a waste of time... at this point Phil is relaxing in his air-conditioned 5-star trailer... ahhhh... how festive.

And ONCE again, due to a production error, the Linz' car battery was drained. Last week it was the Godlewskis, this week the Linz family who have fallen to last place. This is starting to be a bit ironic that teams who are doing well get knocked back to last place. Once, an accident... twice, coincidence or conspiracy?

They all arrive, they all sleep, they all leave the next day. Spare the details.

ROADBLOCK: A special two-person roadblock. Ride on the horses to round up the cows and get them where they belong.

And off to Yellowstone and Old Faithful. On our trip through the greatest features of the West? Well... something like that. Once again, I'm quickly becoming uninspired by this episode. I watch the Amazing Race to see new and interesting places... I guess this tour of the inland western US doesn't thrill me too much. But I digress...

The Bransen and Weavers are off and running, the Godlewski's short behind... the Linz family bringing up the rear. Faithfully every 92 minutes they wait for the geyser eruption... part of the rules are that you have to wait and watch the eruption before you get your clue. That's gonna put the Bransen and Weavers on their way to the magic carpet. The Godlewskis and Linz will be in a neck-and-neck race to find Phil.

And one of the Linz brothers caught on to the obvious that I missed completely. The clue mentioned nothing of finding the pit stop... but simply to find Phil.

The race to Phil is on... the first two teams make it to Phil and it's "You're the first and second teams to arrive... but this leg is not over.. here's your next clue."

And the rest, as they say, will be continued next week.

On to the Beehive state... Leg 9

2005-11-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

And now for the real race....

The Godlewski family is in first and off to Utah they go. Oh yes, we're driving there. And we're pulling a trailer behind the truck... of course. The producers have cut the budget so much that not only are we driving everywhere, but now we're going to live in our own trailer. This IS the American middle-class experience. Good times.

Two-lane roads through the middle of nowhere. And trying to make a U-turn with a trailer attached to the back of your truck. Some are overly cautious, but then quickly realize that you don't necessarily have to stay on the road.

Helicopters... please take a number. The clue box is way up at the top. What a superfluous adventure, the only thing it really serves to do is to space the teams out into relatively equal intervals. On second thought, that was probably the point all along.

Moab, Utah. Home of... yeah.... nothing.

DETOUR: Ride down... or Drop down. Ride a bike down a mountain, or repel down the side of a cliff. This one seems to break the mold... most detours are picking which is easier, but I think this is obviously either the faster scarier one, or the slower but less scary one. Everyone except the Weavers (Team Florida) seem to be repelling down the cliff. However, the Weavers still have a lock on 2nd place behind the Linz family.

"Due to a production error involving the camera equipment, the Godlewski's car battery was drained... they were provided a replacement vehicle, but have fallen into last place." I guess they assume any bad luck incurred on the race, but still, if they end up losing I'd certainly be complaining about that one.

Off to Green River State Park, where they'll be spending the night. Linz are first and will depart at 7am the next morning. Weavers are next, out at 7:15am. Bransen family is 3rd, out at 7:30am. And Godlewski last, departing at 7:45am. So it's a long night in the campers, which seem to be lacking of cameramen, but do have some cameras built-in for the television viewing convenience.

I'll take this moment while the teams are sleeping, to ponder one of the great questions of the race... are the Weavers (Team Florida) really deserving of all of the crap they're getting from the other teams, or is it, as they say, completely unjustified. The producers editing this show must have had a field day when they saw this, immediately they had something they could use throughout the entire show to enhance the drama. Ironically enough, in the same breath the Weavers talk about how everyone's being mean to them when they're being nothing but nice, and then they're making fun of the other teams and practically anything else they come across. My conclusion... sure it's edited to make it worse than it is, on both sides, but not without justification.

Morning has broken, we're back on the road. Time to go to River City, UT and find Bart. But who is Bart? Little do they know that Bart is a trained Grizzly Bear. Well, that wasn't as hard as expected, actually.

Off to Park City, UT home of the 2002 Olympic Games. With a caution, YIELD AHEAD. Well the Linz family is in first, one can only expect that the Weaver family will be yielded if the Linz family gets there first. Weaver family takes a "shortcut", but will it really help them out, or will they end up in last place? One can only wonder. Well it looks like the Weavers are going to be long behind most of the rest, but courtesy of the Linz family, they'll also be yielded once they arrive.

ROADBLOCK: jump off a ski jump into a pool of water. Easy yet slightly exhilirating. Not any real difficulty in this roadblock. It's looking like team Florida is going to be eliminated this week. Unless a miracle can occur in the remaining 10 minutes of the show.

Drive yourself to the next pit stop, the Salt Lake City Library. And now it's whether or not they can find it on time. Linz family, you're team number one... trip for four from ** CORPORATE SPONSOR ALERT** Travelocity to Jackson Hole, WY. Bransen's 2nd, Godlewski family 3rd. And all three teams have arrived... but I think the Weavers are still sitting at the yield. We'll watch their last bit of the race in virtual fast forward. Cue the sad music... "Weaver family, you're the last team to arrive... I'm pleased to tell you this is a non elimination leg!"

This is where I point out that when my friend Andrew and I were discussing this prior to the show, I suspected it would be a reprieve leg, but Andrew doubted me figuring that it would be 3 teams left then the reprieve. All I shall say is, HA! And that is all.

4 teams *still* remain... who will be eliminated next.

Leg 9? Or is it?

2005-11-16T17:00:00.000-08:00

[In lieu of an actual leg of the Amazing Race this week, as it was scandalously preempted by the Country Music Awards on CBS, I've invented my own leg of the race, right here in my hometown of Seattle. Now, according to my research, Amazing Race 3 actually has its finish line here in Seattle at Gas Works Park. Reading the recap, I see that they made pretty lame attempts at infiltrating the tourist icons of the Emerald City... my mythical leg of the race will not be so bland.]

Back this week for another leg of the Amazing Race 8. Four families remain, who will be eliminated this week? And cue the opening credits...

We're in Lake Powell, AZ, the Godlewski family is first to depart. Drive to the airport and fly to... Seattle, Washington! And they're off.

The Godlewski family and the Linz family both make the last seats on the first flight to Seattle on *Corporate Sponsor Alert* Alaska Airlines. Team Florida and the Bransen family both make it on the next later flight, arriving an hour later.

Once they arrive, they must drive into downtown Seattle and find the world famous Pike Place Market. There, they must find the Pike Place Fish Market, home of the flying fish. There, they must find a man dressed up like Ivar Haglund, who will give them their next clue. The Godlewski women cleared their way out of the airport and make it to Seattle, but OOPS... they turned the wrong way up a one-way street and are quickly corrected by the Nordstrom's valet who points them back in the right direction.

The Weavers and the Bransen family have arrived and are hot on the trail... but the Weavers got on the wrong freeway and found themselves on the other side of Lake Washington from Seattle. "Where's the Pike Place Market?" "On that's over in Seattle." "What, this isn't Seattle." "No, this is Bellevue. Seattle is on the other side of the lake." Mass chaos ensues in Team Florida. Looking at the map they found, they realize that the lake is huge, and they have to go back where they came from to get to Seattle. So they drive back down by the airport to get on the right freeway. They fail to notice the floating bridges across the lake.

Meanwhile the Linz family slid into first and after a brief hunt, found Ivar with the next clue. Take a ferry from the waterfront to Fort Casey State Park on Whidbey Island. Search for the clue box to find your next clue. The Bransen family has caught up, and all three teams (except the Weavers) are on the same ferry to the island, just as night falls on the water. The Weavers just finally make it to the market.

All three teams rush to drive out to the park, but find that the park is closed until morning. As is always in the Amazing Race... all of the teams catch up and it's a new fight to the finish on the second day.

As the sun rises over Fort Casey, Phil provides a bit of history. Fort Casey was one of three forts situated at the entrance to Puget Sound. Built by the Navy in the early 1900's to guard against ships threatening the Puget Sound cities, Fort Casey was an integral part of the US defense during World War I.

All four teams are now tied as they make their way into the park and find the clue box.

ROADBLOCK! One member from each team must search the entire fort to find a small, specially marked cannonball and bring it to the park ranger to receive their next clue. And they're off... hunting everywhere. One of the Bransen daughters finds one first and brings it back to get their next clue.

Drive back to Seattle and find Husky Stadium on the shores of Lake Washington. Once there, go down to the field and lead the University of Washington Marching Band in the song Tequila, and the band will spell out the location of your next clue.

The Bransens are off... just as the Linz family finds a cannonball and gets their clue. Team Florida finds one too. The Godlewskis are getting frustrated with how hard it is to find one, and are currently in last place, the only team remaining at the fort.

After a little time, the Bransens are first to arrive at Husky Stadium to find the band on the field. The Bransen dad climbs up on the ladder and waves his arms to start the band playing. As the band forms the letters, they quickly realize that they can't tell what it is from the ground. The daughters run up the stands to look down onto the field. They see the letters "52 VV 8". They are momentarily confused, then look at the marking in the stadium bleachers. Section 52 way up in the upper deck, and off they go up the very steep grade of the stadium bleachers. Row VV, seat 8. Under the seat they find their next clue.

By now the Linz family has arrived, and they race up to where the Bransens just found a clue. But surprise! No more clues?! What happened? They go down and conduct the band, who spell out a different location "43 J 12". They are off to the other side of the stadium trying to find their clue.

"Proceed to the next pit stop. Go to the Smith Tower and proceed to the Chinese Room on the 35th Floor. Warning... the last team to arrive may be eliminated."

Bransen and Linz are off and moving, the Weavers are making their way through Husky Stadium, but can't figure out the clue that the band showed them: "7 G 13". They are looking in section 13 but can't find it for the life of them. Meanwhile the Godlewskis find their clue quickly and are off leaving the Weavers to yell at each other on their own. They finally figure it out...

"Bransen family... you're team number one!" And the prize for this leg of the race? A lifetime supply of *Corporate Sponsor Alert* Starbucks Coffee, valued at approximately $10,000. Yeah, that sounds about right... are you sure it's only $10,000 though?
Linz family comes in second with plenty of room. But who will be last...

The Weavers make it into the Smith Tower and into the elevators. The historic Smith Tower elevator operator starts them on their journey. Just as the Godlewski women come running into the tower and grab and elevator. What happens? WHAT?!?! The Godlewski family made it to the top first! They must have had a faster elevator (or a nicer operator).

"Weaver family... you're the last team to arrive... ... I'm sorry to inform you that you've... wait... just kidding... this is a non-elimination leg!"

And so it goes... the mysterious leg of the Amazing Race 8. We now return you to your regularly schedule programming.

Grand Canyon? Dam. - Leg 8

2005-11-08T22:59:00.000-08:00

[I actually made it home in time to watch this second episode of the double-header, but Andrew had already sent me his excellent recap, so I took the opportunity to just sit back and enjoy the show. Woot!]

After a recap of the previous hours results.... what's up with that? Showing us what we just saw?...the teams leave at 11:30ish PM to Mesa, AZ. I'm sure everyone will catch up at the combat airport. The Bransens head to the casino to win some BIG BUCKS...well, to get any money they can. In case you forgot what happened ten minutes ago, they were the last team to arrive,but received no money at the beginning of this leg. That's great, i bet they came out with more money than was given the other four teams.

Talk about a mix up amongst the first three teams. First arrives third and the other two move up one spot. Take a number at the door and wait. Timefor a roadblock. Take off on a fighter plane and take control of the plane and perform a 360 loop. Well, doesn't that sound exciting!! Actually, a bit scary if you ask me, but I'm sure it's perfectly safe.

Only three teams get to go at a time, so the Bransens and Paolos are left watching the other three teams get a larger lead. First, they must do some maneuvers which look like the plane is going to stall and plummet to the earth. Then, around they go. 360 loop and land. Get the next clue....Drive 200+ miles to the Grand Canyon.

Back in the planes, Paolo boy messes up his loop. Too many g's means try again. But the Bransen girl started turning to the left. Both complete the task on their second attempts. To the Canyon we go!

Team Florida arrives to the Canyon gatehouse first and ask the ranger to give a long history lesson to the Linz behind them. That ploy didn't work. Find a dam to get the next clue. The Weaver's have gotta go... literally...they need to find a restroom. Now, the detour.

Find a series of cards using a compass... or remove water from a submerged boat and carry it to shore. Now, what sounds easy here? Obviously it's the compass using, so go with the bailing of the boat, right? I'm not so sure.. Using the compass and letting a speed boat take you to where you need to go seems pretty fast. Plus, the sunken boats are not to be seen anywhere.

Now, for some drama, the Paolos are lost. They went the wrong way. Oops. Sucks to be them.

OK.. OK... so i was wrong about the tasks. Joe knows what he's talking about when he says harder is easier. The boat bailing was much faster. Woot! Time for the pitstop. Find a boathouse in the middle of a lake. Now it's the time to hurry to be not only first, but the winners of an awesome prize by a corporate sponsor. Will it be money? Will it be a trip? Or how about free gas for life? Now that was the best prize ever offered, if you ask me.

Four teams finished with the detour before the Paolos begin. Unless someone gets lost on the way to the lake, they're done for. No amount of clothes can save them this time. Now, the mom usually doesn't have the brightest ideas, but i do believe that she is correct... turning the boat upside-down will make the boat lighter when it loses all that water weight. I do believe i saw two other teams do that very thing.

The Linz got the slow boat. Perhaps if they followed the marked path they would've arrived first. But they get there second. Behind the Godlewskis. As the winners, they receive a travel trailer. Umm.. that's not so exciting, but i'll take a prize anyday of the week. The Weavers are third. And we've got another slow boat. The Bransens got the slow boat. But they manage to overcome that and finish fourth.

"Paolo family, you're the last team to arrive. I'm sorry to tell you, you have been eliminated from the race." That's funny. The one time they aren't yelling at each other is when they're eliminated. But, since they've got to go... they will be dubbed "The Family that yelled at each other too much" Well, there goes the high drama from the race.

What?! Home so soon? Leg 7

2005-11-08T22:03:00.000-08:00

[Due to prior commitments, I missed this episode of the Amazing Race...
... fortunately, I'm pleased to inform you that this recap was not eliminated. :) Special guest blogger Andrew has graciously provided this leg's recap. Oddly enough, the impact of my previous entries seems all too apparent in his recap. Thanks, Andrew! ]

Recap of last week. "Gaghan Family, you have been eliminated"....and now, cue the opening sequence.

The Paolos, being the first to arrive, will be the first to leave the beaches of Costa Rica at 7:27am. Interesting time to begin a day... will the lead last? Especially with the Linz only one minute behind. And the Bransens one minute after that.

First challenge, swim to a bouy in the bay and retrieve the clue. Hmm.. it's the old dad vs the young guy vs the other old dad. And dad #1 (Paolo) is drowning and calls for rescue swimmers.
The Linz take the lead. Go to a church and find the altarboy.

Meanwhile, old dad #2 passes up old dad #1.

The three teams are heading for town to call a taxi. All three teams catchup to each other and the Paolo dad calls for three taxis in Spanish. Two and a half hours for the taxi ride. Enough time to see the final two teams swim out to the buoy...the Godlewski women and the Weaver family.

Rapido Rapido. Our favorite words from Amazing Race.

And the first three teams arrive at the church. Time for a detour... a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons. Brush or barrel?

Brush, paint a wheel for a cart and have it approved by an artisan. Barrel, unload harvested sugar cane (1ton) and transport it to the factory. Then, search amongst the barrels for the one with a clue inside. Hmm... the painting looks too intricate. But, one ton of sugar cane?!? That's a lot of sugar cubes. I suppose the painting sounds easier... less demanding, at least. So, following the rule of thumb, do the sugar cane.

The sugar is practically large twigs in a pile that need to be loaded onto a cart. It looks like that'll be quick.

The painting will definitely take forever. And three people take that task.

The barrel search of the sugar looks like giant wine cellar... similar to the wineries of the pacific northwest. And the Linz family, after wondering how to open a barrel, pull out a cork and find a clue on the first try. Fly to.......

Phoenix, Arizona?!? Well, they are certainly not going to many exotic places. It seems to be the early afternoon. Will there be any late flights for the teams? Or will everyone catch up to each other? The Linz seem to get a flight out to Atlanta and then to Phoenix. The Paolos arrive just too late. But, that all seems to be good because the other teams will be arriving 10 minutes before the Linz. Hmm.. should've checked all flights.

And while waiting for the plane, team Florida puts the Paolo boy in the corner. Why did you yield us? We should be friends or else we'll yield youthe next time. And after flying the lovely Taca Airlines, the Godlewskis discover they don't have tickets to Phoenix. What happened in that transaction? They have to take a taxi to Newark, but all's good. They'll arrive at the same time as the other groups. First, in fact.

And it's lovely Phoenix... "hotter than snot." I've spent a few too many hours at that airport. The Linz arrive last... but they get to their car before the Paolos. They're lost in the parking lot. hahaha I've heard of that happening before but it's usually during the hectic holiday shopping time of year.

A road block is a task that only one person can perform. One person has to drive a go-cart for 50 laps in the sweltering heat. Remember to pull in the pit after lap 25. This is the second racetrack event of the tour. Remember when they rode the bicycles around the track at Talladega? And how will the Weavers handle the drama of another racetrack? A little better than the bigger one.

After the race... drive yourself to the next pitstop.... Fort McDowell. An ancestral tribal land, where the last team to arrive, may be eliminated. First to finish... the Godlewskis. Can anyone in that family read a map or make a decision? Apparently not, as they are in the wrong spot.
Three teams arrive at once. Who will race to the carpet and be first? The Godlewskis... and what do they win? A trip for four to Belize from *sponser alert* Travelocity.... home of the famous travel gnome. Next up, the Weavers. Then, the Linz.

The Paolos arrive fourth, but they think their last... putting on all their clothes, the Bransens arrive. Hahaha.. this is pretty funny. Too bad they can't count to five. Now, they convince the Bransens to put on all their clothes when they arrive last. They've got winter coats on in the 110-degree desert. How crazy's that? Is it worth it???

Yes, it is not an elimination leg and they are offered a reprieve. But, they lose all their possessions and $$$. Plus, we are benefitted with a second episode. Yes, that's right. Someone will be eliminated tonight in the second hour!

On the road again... leg 6

2005-11-01T22:06:00.000-08:00

Back again for Leg 6 of the Amazing Race...

After a quick recap of last week's leg, we're off to Costa Rica. Here's your quick geography lesson... Costa Rica is a neighbor of Panama, so of course, instead of taking a plane, they'll take a bus. You'd think with all of these corporate sponsors the show seems to have, they'd have enough money to take a few planes instead of going "el cheapo" throughout Central America to save money.

The Godlewski women were spared elimination at the end of the last race, but are now completely broke and need to somehow find some money to take a taxi to the bus station. It must not have been too hard to beg for the money, considering how little TV time was dedicated to them doing that. And three buses are on their way to Costa Rica.

Once they arrive, the hardest part for some of them seems to be finding their vans they have waiting in a parking lot about 2 blocks from the bus station. Drama, drama, drama. BUT the real drama is how much everyone seems to despise the team from Florida who they will do everything they can to make sure they lose.

And true to Amazing Race form, all of the teams, despite their best efforts to stay in front, will pile up and get stuck at the same place at the same time. In this case, it's a national park at some volcano. But of course, it turns out they're there solely to pick up the next clue and head back to their vans to go 17 miles to the next stop.

"El righto or lefto?" Yeah, that's the ticket. Well they seem to have found it.

The first yield of AR8, and in a grandiose form, the Paolo family yields the Weaver family (a.k.a. Team Florida). When they arrive to find out they were yielded, they only demonstrate how much they deserved to be yielded. Negative attitudes, makes it quite easy to realize that a little nice may go a long way, but a lot of mean gets you what you dish out.

Roadblock. Reminiscent of the "find a needle in a haystack" roadblock of a few seasons past, this one will be to search for a single red bean among 800 lbs of coffee beans. Actually, this one turns out to be not incredibly difficult, at least for the most part. And all of the teams are gone and off to the next clue, while the Weavers are still waiting for the sands of time to fall so they can continue. But in a lucky turn of events, the Weavers' quick searching

Detour: Relic or Ripe ... find 4 relics in the forest, or heave 15 bushels of bananas onto a pulley system and take them to the processing plant. These actually seem pretty even, one complicated but not difficult, one strenuous, but relatively uncomplicated. Take your pick.

Off to the town of Quepos, and off to find the magic carpet on the beaches of the Pacific ocean. The last team to check in, may, and will, be eliminated. I have yet to see any season of Amazing Race where there were two reprieves in successive legs. Though that'd be an unexpected twist, for sure. If only I were one of the producers... I'll show you a twist.

Karma, Karma, Karma for the team from Florida. Now the rains have softened the grass they were parked on, and they're stuck. But in what I think was a bout of editing liberties by the producers, it probably wasn't nearly as dramatic as it seemed, as the Weaver team still remained firmly in penultimate place. The Gaghan family remains last off towards the pitstop.

"Paolo Family... You Are Team Number One!" For the second week running, they have retained first place. Un-memorable prizes for winning that leg of the race, I think they won like a Segway or a thing or other. Whatever. Certainly there was a corporate sponsor somewhere in there that I missed.

Oddly enough, the first 3 teams were neck-and-neck at the end, each arriving within a minute of the other, which should make an interesting start to the next leg. The Weaver family survived as team number 5. Cue the sad music... Gaghan family is the last team to arrive and have been eliminated from the race. What a great family... absolutely great. Gaghan daughter Carissa, the youngest ever to compete in the Amazing Race, trying to hold back tears after a performance that far exceeded many previous competitors much older than she. It would have been nice to see them win. But until next week, 5 teams remain.

Get out of dodge - Leg 5

2005-10-25T22:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to the Big Easy! In this, the 5th leg of the Amazing Race, we start out once again with the standard disclaimer that this episode was taped several weeks before the tragic hurricane devestated New Orleans.

And it's another late-night departure, but we're FINALLY heading out of the USA. Onto an airplane and off to Panama City, Panama. The first big international flight challenge. They apparently have the choice of two different flights, one arriving at about 6:30pm the other at 9:00pm. And now comes the battle to get the first flight... how many will make it? Once again, the Paolo family mother just keeps nagging. But the classic part is the ticket agent for Continental, who does nothing else but say "I'm sorry, the flight is full." At this point, I think the producers of the show have a hand in things again. I think they make very sure exactly how many seats are available on a flight, just to keep things interesting.

Now once we're in Panama, in one of the great ironies that the Amazing Race performs so well, all of the teams get stuck arriving somewhere 3 hours apart, in the middle of the night, only to have everyone wait until 7am to take a boat across the Panama Canal. Well everyone's even.

And oh yes, we're back in a Spanish-speaking country... and EVERYONE thinks they can speak the language. Vaminos, arriba, andele, rapido... you name it. Oh well, what can you expect? I guess it makes them feel festive like they're making a difference, though I fully expect that most of the people they encounter can speak perfectly decent English. Whatever.

And it's a commercial. I don't know how they pay the bills when there hasn't even been a corporate sponsor. OR HAS THERE?! How about American and Continental airlines? Could they be getting kickbacks for their shameless promotion? Hmmm...

HAHAHAHAHA. Now they're supposed to track down a scientist in a hammock named Ricardo Diaz. You'd think this is pretty easy... until you realize that there are about 50 guys in hammocks spotted all throughout the area.

Fast Forward: Tandem Bungee Jump 140ft over the Panama Canal. The only fast forward on the entire race. The Godlewski team is the first to have the chance, and they decide to skip over it. The Paolo family appears to want to get to the Fast Forward... but only one team can do it, so if you're the second team to get there, you've just made a whole mess of your chances. And the Paolo's arrive first. Now, I wouldn't expect them to chicken out on this... I mean, if I were there, I'd just push them. And the Gaghan family is right behind them... they're waiting, but I'd just turn around and get back to the detour and finish things up while you still have time. I'd bet on the Gaghan family to come in last right now. The Paolo family completed the FF and are off to the Miraflores Locks, gateway to the Pacific.

Or... the dreaded detour: Rhythm or Coos.
Find 4 musical instruments throughout this city and bring them to a jazz club... or... find 5 wooden bird replicas planted in the trees using binoculars, and circle them on a bird identification chart. Coos seems harder than Rhythm... which usually would mean I'd suggested Coos... but maybe for once I'll be wrong. The bird watching seems to be incredibly hard, but after a couple of detailed tries, they seem to have done it without too much trouble. And it turned out the hardest part of the musical instrument hunt was getting the instruments into the cases once they make it to the club. HA! Classic. Well I guess we can't all be musicians.

Paolo family... you're team number one! As winners of Leg 5, they get a vacation to none other than Panama courtesy of *** CORPORATE SPONSOR ALERT *** Travelocity! Panama? Well, I guess that's creative. :-P

Now back to the other teams taking the not-so regular route.. off to a baseball stadium. ROADBLOCK: Get a hit against a top little-league baseball team in Panama. Of course, it's one-two-three strikes you're out. And you're to the back of the line. OOOh, the Gaghan family slides into 5th place and in front of the Godlewski women, who are still trying to make a hit.

I should probably announce the fact that I have been predicting who I think will win each leg of the race, and each time except for once, my pick has come in dead last and been eliminated from the race. The one time I didn't come in last? The Linz family in the first leg, they came in 9th place out of 10. Why do I bring this up now? Because this week I predicted the Godlewski family would win... and it's quickly looking like they're going to end up in last place. Though mathematically speaking, it's just as hard to pick the last place team each week as it is to pick the first place team, so maybe I'm really good, just in the wrong way? Yeah, I'll think of it that way.

And everyone's made it out of the baseball stadium and is off to the pit stop at the Miraflora Locks. Weaver Family... team #2. Bransen Family... team #3. Linz Family... team #4 quickly after. Two teams remain... Gaghan and Godlewski. Will the team I predicted to win be eliminated? Well they're bracing for the worst... they're hoping for a non-elimination leg and are putting on all the clothes they can. Gaghan Family... team #5. That leaves the Godlewski family... and Phil's comment... "the good news is this is a non-elimination leg". The bad news is, they lose all their money, and Phil becomes repo man and takes all of their posessions except the 8 layers of clothes on their backs. On the more practical side, they've also got nothing to carry their clothes in since their backpacks were taken, and no money to buy anything to carry them in... so they're either going to be very warm, or very busy picking up their clothes that they keep dropping along the way. Well, that remains to be seen.

6 teams still remain... until next week.

Big Rockets to the Big Easy - Leg 4

2005-10-18T21:59:00.000-07:00

Coming to you this week in HDTV... it's leg 4 of the Amazing Race 8!

Kicking off this leg of the race from Huntsville, Alabama. And since everyone arrived late at night, this time it's time for a daytime start.

And we're finding... the largest office chair in the world. Wow... that's uh... interesting. We're crusing down the freeway past Birmingham (and waving to my friend Andrew on the way through). Climbing the chair to get the clue... and off to Talladega, AL.

One lap around the 2.6-mile Talladega racetrack on a party bike and the task is complete. Not hard, pretty entertaining. Cue the drama. The Weaver family (mother and three kids) 's father was killed in a racing accident. Upon learning they will need to actually go onto a racetrack to complete the challenge, they are none-to-pleased. But the show must go on, and racing they will do.

Continuing the short-hop race we're off to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to find the Southern Colonel. Now, let's cut to Regis Philbin:

For $1,000,000, what is the Southern Colonel?

a) A fried chicken restaurant
b) A Civil War museum
c) A 60' tall statue of Colonel Sanders
d) A trailer park

And the answer is... D! A trailer... oh, sorry, Mobile Home park.

So the challenge... look through a bunch of mobile homes for departure times of 7:20, 7:40, or 8:00, after which they will stay there for the night. This isn't complicated... but as usual, it's a matter of finding the time that you want. One girl is getting really worked up by the fact that her family took an 8:00 time without looking hard enough for a better one. I'd actually have to agree with this... logically, if you know the last time is 8:00, and assume that nobody will be left without a time, if you find an 8:00, you could easily keep looking for a better time, and if you don't find one, you're at least guaranteed to be able to get an 8:00 time. So you couldn't do much worse. But here we go.

It's morning, time to go drive to Richland, MS and find a... *** CORPORATE SPONSOR ALERT *** BP gas station, and a guy named Les, to find their next clue. And now they're off to the "Pelican State"... which is none other than Louisiana.

Madisonville, LA. On the Great American Roadtrip. And finally, this week's Detour: Work or Play. Work will be to saw logs... play will be to canoe over to a riverboat and play blackjack. This one, play seems to be the easier option... but of course, the element of luck is never to be underestimated. So based on my continuing mantra.. you should saw the logs. And the result is... that the log sawing was definitely the better of the two tasks to complete.

Time to drive across the longest bridge in the country across Lake Pontchartrain to the city of New Orleans. First a disclaimer I omitted from the beginning of the episode, this is all tape a few weeks prior to Hurricane Katrina. Lucky timing if I've ever seen it. Find Preservation Hall in the French Quarter... and the next pit stop.

"Bransen Family... You're Team Number One!" For the second week in a row, the Bransen family has achieved first place. To go along with their lifetime supply of gas from *** CORPORATE SPONSOR ALERT *** BP and ARCO... they will this week get a week-long vacation to *** CORPORATE SPONSOR ALERT *** Universal Studios Orlando, courtesy of *** CORPORATE SPONSOR ALERT *** Travelocity.

And the Schroder family is the last team to arrive. With the daughter who insisted that the race is won or lost by a single minute... and thus is was. And thus the Schroder family should have listened to the daughter who boldly embodied the phrase "slow and steady wins the race", and shall be known as "The Hare Family".

From Charleston, to outer space - Leg 3

2005-10-11T21:59:00.000-07:00

It's time for the 3rd leg of the Amazing Race 8. We start in Washington DC...

From last week's undocumented 2nd leg of the race that I didn't blog about:

Playing James Bond around the reflecting pool. Kudos to the producers for creativity on that one. I enjoyed it a great deal.
Civil War battle reenactment. Also very historically fun.
Various other entertaining things happened, but it's in the past now.

But back to the present... let's get started on the 3rd leg of the Amazing Race.

Miracle of miracles! We're finally getting on an airplane! I guess sending 8 teams on a plane is cheaper than the 10 from the beginning of the race. Well we seem to have found the airport, but now teams come to the realization that not everyone's going to fit on the same flight. But we seem to have 3 flights that all get to Charleston, SC within about 30 minutes of each other. In AR terms, that's nothing. Everyone's got a chance now!

Detour in South Carolina: Forrest Gump or Muddy Waters. Get on a shrimp boat and dehead 200 lbs of shrimp... or driving trucks through mud without getting stuck. Now, which seems easier, the driving through the mud... so which do I recommend... the shrimp boat. And so far 2 teams have tried the mud run... and one has quit and driving back to do the shrimp. Classic... the Aiello family on their 13th attempt through the mud... fail once again. Yet another family --whose name can't remember because they all run together-- does it on their first attempt. Finally the Aiello family makes it on their 14th attempt. Everyone else seems to have done the Forrest Gump.

Then there's the Paolo family, with the mother who won't shut up. Nag, nag, nag. At first, I thought this was simply creative editing by the producers to make it seem very odd.

On we go to the Charleston visitor center to board a charter bus to a "mystery destination". 4 teams on the first bus, 4 teams on the second bus 2 hours later. And the "mystery destination" becomes... an 8-hour bus trip to Huntsville, Alabama, the "rocket capital of the world". Off to the US Space and Rocket center, but it's the middle of the night, do we expect that the place will be closed? But this time, it doesn't matter.... ROADBLOCK.

This will be a 2-person roadblock, for the first time in Amazing Race history. 2 members from each team will endure a centrifuge until they experience 3.2 G forces. That's it, then they're done. The problem here is that it's first-in, first-out. So this will immediately space the teams out by about 10 or 15 minutes, I'd suppose.

So the next challenge, to find the Saturn V rocket, go into the museum and find a computer screen where you have to *** CORPORATE SPONSOR ALERT *** sign-in to AOL and check your e-mail for a message from Phil telling you your next clue. In this case, we need to go to find the Pathfinder Space Shuttle where Phil in waiting for you on the magic carpet.

"Welcome to Huntsville, Alabama." "Branson Family, you're team number one." And the winners this week receive... *** CORPORATE SPONSOR ALERT *** free gasoline at any BP or ARCO station.... FOR LIFE! That's pretty darn impressive. That prize must be worth tens of thousands of dollars... and who knows.. perhaps a lot more over the years.

That said, now it's the race for last place. The last 4 teams were 2 hours later than the first 4 teams, so they're all clustered together too. Race to the finish now... and unfortunately the last team is the Aiello family... the father with his 3 son-in-laws. Once again, one of the teams that I really enjoyed and thought was one of the better teams... was eliminated.

Well we're getting down to 7 teams now, but I'm starting to wonder if we're even going to leave the US on this race. We seem to be making the cross-country Amazing Race. This actually doesn't bother me too much, because it's interesting seeing what cities they try to come up with. It's just not quite the same as I'm used to.

Ready.... GO!

2005-09-27T21:05:00.000-07:00

The race is on! It's time for the start of the Amazing Race 8!

First off, I'm skeptical of the family edition being as exciting as the regular teams-of-2 format. Too many people means there's sure to be a lot more confusion, likely more drama, but similarly I expect less excitement until they whittle down the number of teams.

And now for the team introductions. We get a 15 second introduction to each team, culminating in a colossal waste of time. Nobody's going to remember a thing about these teams, but I guess at least we get to see them for the first time.

We begin at the starting line which is New York City... on the grounds in the shadow of the Brooklyn Bridge. "Good luck. Travel safe. GO!" And... they're... off!

"Soho is a nice place.... I think." All of the teams have plenty of drama it seems. In the first 5 minutes we've already taken wrong turns up one-way streets, run countless red lights. The first mission is to drive to Soho and get a specific list of camping supplies. Do we get the clue that the producers are trying to save on some hotel rooms for the first night? :) Well that was painless, the store had their supplies all picked out and on a shelf with the family's name on it.

Now on to find a hotdog stand on 91st street. Well that shouldn't be too hard, if you can just count streets... but again, this is the Amazing Race, nothing is apparently as easy as it seems. Well teams have managed to find the frank on 91st St and they've got their next clue.

Now we're driving to... Pennsylvania. "Like, the state of Pennsylvania?" Now for our historic leg of the race, we're going to cross the Delaware river ala George Washington and retrieve a 13-star US flag. At least they have a GW look-alike at the front of their rowboats. Very nice touch.

Philadelphia... the city of brotherly love. On the road again... just can't wait to get on the road again... and put up a tent. Well, at last they get to rest for a while... even though they're not quite at a pit stop yet. And it's very nice that all of the teams who arrive late were helped by all of the other early teams with their tents. So nice. Then the rain starts. It rains like crazy. This is where the teams first thing to themselves "what are we doing out here?"

At this point... I'm bored. If I recall, I got bored halfway through the first leg of AR7 too. Plus, there's another hour of this mayhem. This is the point in the blog where I criticize the producers for making an episode 2-hours long that really didn't need to be 2-hours long.

And theyr'e off for day 2 of the first leg of the race. 3 teams leave at 10:00, 4 at 10:30 and the remaining 4 at 11:00. Obviously one night together shows the first alliances being formed. I do have to admit that the fact that there isn't an evil Rob and Amber this season makes me incredibly more happy watching the teams race.

Detour! Build it or buggy it. Build a small size working water mill... or push/pull a buggy along a 1/2 mile course. Now, if we recall my mantra from AR7, if one looks obviously easier than the other, choose the one that seems harder! In this case, I'd put my money on the Build It. However, the first 3 teams to arrive all have chosen to buggy it. And this brings us to the Amazing Race 8 Terrifying Moment #1... the buggy loses control on a downhill slope and literally runs over one of the contestants. That one'll make SportsCenter tonight. Apparently there's a break on these buggies.. but this one certainly did not work correctly.
As for the teams that are building it, success is abundant. As expected the task that seemed difficult actually turned out to be as easy as building Ikea furniture (which by the way was actually a detour from 2 seasons ago).

The question now remains... are these teams going to actually get out of the country before one gets eliminated? That would be one lame race for the team that got eliminated... "I was on the Amazing Race... I went to Pennsylvania!!"

And oh yes, my prophesy has been fulfilled, we're off to the pit stop and that is none other than... Lancaster, PA. Now we just have to find Phil and the magic carpet! And the 4 women of the Godlewski family are team number 1 and win... $20,000. Now, I must admit that my prediction in the official cbs.com AR8 Fantasy Game was the Linz family. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm going to have correctly picked the last place team of the first leg of the Amazing Race 8.

And then there are the remaining teams, the tempers get shorter, the tension rises... surely compounded by the fact that your failure is soon to be broadcast on national television. Thank you reality TV. Wow, you see who the close families are and who the dysfunctional ones are.

Well, my fantasy family for this week came in as Team #9 after a quick footrace to the finish. Sadly, one of the most cohesive and positive families, the Black family, were the last team to arrive and have become the first victims of AR8. So this season I'd like to give a title to each of the eliminated families of the race. The Black family is now dubbed "The family that was eliminated too soon."

Next week may be a bit delayed since I'll be out of town... but I'll catch up with the 3rd leg of the race. Until then...

Amazing Race 8 Travelblog

2005-09-27T20:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Amazing Race 8 Travelblog. I'm here with another season of captivating, cynical, sarcastic, and entertaining blogs that will follow the Amazing Race each week. This season there may be some guest bloggers filling in for me on some weeks, just to change things up a bit. Of course, last seasons blog can still be found at http://ar7travelblog.blogspot.com/.